Brazilian football superstar Neymar Jr has officially been signed by Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) for an unprecedented £198 million fee. The phenomenal deal securing his move from Barcelona to the French club will mean the 25-year-old’s wages will equate to 45 million euros (£40.3 million) a year before tax. Since the £198 million fee figure is so ridiculous, we thought it would be appropriate to research all the ridiculous things this amount of money could fund.
1. Tuition, room and board for 4,157 students at Harvard this year.
2. Over 1,000 journeys to the stratosphere. Virgin Galactic flights cost $250,000 per person, so you’d be able to send the entire, 31-man PSG squad to space every day for a month.
3. Two of Bill Gates’ bespoke mansions – with some change left over. It took the Microsoft co-founder seven years to build Xanadu 2.0, and in 2014 it was valued at $125.5m. Guests wear electronic tags that trigger the temperature or lighting of a room to change to match their preferences. Add a huge pool, gym, library, reception hall, underground garage and everything else you’d expect to find in Bill Gates’ house.
4. You could afford the most expensive car ever sold at auction, the 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, eight times over.
5. Budget 26 episodes of Game of Thrones. According to Forbes, the cost of each season 7 episode of the HBO blockbuster show is $10 million (£7.6 million). Neymar’s transfer fee would probably completely empty out the vaults of Casterly Rock.
6. It’s 2x Cristiano Ronaldo. Arguably the greatest footballer in the world, Ronaldo was signed by Real Madrid from Man Utd for £80 million in 2009. At the time it was a world record fee. He’s since scored an insane 285 goals in 265 appearances for the club. If Neymar’s worth £198 million in 2017, the cost of signing Ronaldo must surely be even more eye-watering.
7. The fee is six times more than what Chelsea paid for N’Golo Kante, one of the most highly regarded midfielders in England. He was then sold to Chelsea for a reported £32 million fee, where he was instrumental in cementing their place as champions last season.
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